Retail facilities (e.g., department stores, product distribution centers, product sorting facilities) stock millions of products and accommodate millions of individuals (e.g., customers, vendors, workers, etc.) every day. Given the large amount of people that pass through (e.g., shop at, work at, deliver to, etc.) the retail facilities on a daily basis, and since the products stocked at the retail facilities are often small in size and have a significant monetary value, retail facilities are known to be prone to shoplifting (i.e., theft of products from the retail facility). For example, some retailers can lose about 1% of their revenue each year due to shoplifting.
In an attempt to reduce shoplifting, many retailers use sensors (e.g., Radio-Frequency identification (RFID)) that are attached to the products and set off an alarm when a person attempting to shoplift such products walks through scanners located at the exit of the retail facility with the sensors still attached to the products. However, knowing that these sensors will trigger an alarm if they are still attached to the products, some shoplifters attempt to physically remove the sensors from the products, which then renders the sensors useless, and permits such shoplifters to walk through the exit sensors with the products without triggering an alarm.
Conventional anti-shoplifting systems require manual monitoring by employees (e.g., as asset protection associates) of the retail facility, which are tasked with observing closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras and generally monitoring the individuals (e.g., customers) at a retail facility. In addition, some asset protection associates are often positioned near the exit of the retail facility and attempt to manually observe and detect shoplifters. While asset protection associates are typically given strict instructions not to stop individuals until they are certain that the individual is actually shoplifting, a problem with such manual, largely subjective, observation of individuals may result in an innocent individual being stopped and erroneously accused of shoplifting, which is likely to embarrass and upset this individual, and may lead not only to a loss of a customer for the retailer, but also a legal action against the retailer by the upset individual.
Elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. Certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. The terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.